Mindat: "All I can do is listen while she cries."
Last night I connected with Mark from Chin State, interviewing him for an upcoming podcast episode. I couldn’t get one part of our talk out of my head since then, and although we’re weeks away from airing his talk, I feel an urgency to share the following words.
Some context: Mark is in Kalay, and is doing his best to support the current siege of terror taking place in Mindat, in which a staggering 90% of the population has fled. With such life necessities as salt and water not easily available in that region, and an entire community now on the run and in hiding, this is a humanitarian disaster of epic proportions in the making, and one in which help is still NOT on the way.
As usual, the Tatmadaw is making it even worse. They are setting up snipers on pathways accessing the few wells, shooting down children who attempt to get water for their families. They are calling in air strikes and using chemical weapons on civilians. They are chasing after these people into the forests and jungles, where worse awaits them.
In the passage below, Mark describes a call he had with one woman accompanying these groups going into the forest. Although they had never before met and emotions are rarely shown openly in Chin culture, the woman broke down sobbing throughout the call, telling Mark how scared she was and begging for help of any kind, be it financial, medical, or spiritual. As most Chins are Christian, at one point in the call she could talk no longer and begged Mark to have a moment of silence and simply pray for her.
Just as I cannot get Mark’s words out of my mind, Mark cannot get this woman’s voice out of his. And I share the following knowing you, too, may not be able to get this story easily from your mind. But that is not a bad thing, because this is the humanity that links us together as compassionate, connected, social beings in this world, who cannot easily stand by and watch the suffering of others.
Mark is doing everything he can. He is organizing youths in other nearby towns to “make noise” and distract the soldiers, a selfless act that will only put their own community at risk, but which can relieve some pressure in Mindat. As all the roads are blocked, aid cannot be taken in directly, so Mark is identifying and creating alternate routes and trusted carriers to get the little resources they have to those people who need them. With these routes in place, Mark is asking for any support that outside donors can provide.
And an added urgent plea here from our side— our donation funds are empty.
We are becoming inundated on a daily, and nightly, basis from groups asking for help of any kind, who have nowhere else to turn. To read this personal account of terror unfolding in the forests surrounding Mindat and not be able to support Mark’s team with food, blankets, and medical supplies, well, it tears at the heart. It is not hyperbole to say that your donation at this point can mean the difference between life and death.
“The situation is damn tense over there, it’s like a hell.”
“These groups are getting all help from me in every possible way. We try to give them money or shelter, as much as we can, while on the other hand, in the other part of the country, they are now making noises and raising their voices, so that more attention will be spread out and more battalions will have to come in to address the other districts of the state, so that the forces in Mindat will be a bit reduced. Because when other people also standing up with them, they will have more courage. They will have more strength to work with the people, because they are suffering. By suffering I mean this group that is now on the run has so many older people, and also children, and women… but the Chin women are now getting raped as the soldiers come in.
So when I had the chance to talk to that lady organizing help with the group, she cried on the phone, even while talking to a stranger like me, who she never before met. So that is how tense the situation is over there.
They are raping the woman. They are killing brutality. My contacts there even say to me, ‘I don't know who these soldiers are! They are like crazy, or high with something. They are not like humans, they are very cruel.’
Anyway, this woman organizer, she is running with the all women and men and children. And she just cried. She didn't even know me. She just cried, she said the only thing they can do now is pray and run. ‘So please pray for me,’ she said, and so we had to pause our conversation for several minutes so I could ask God for help. We have never seen each other before this, we never knew of one another, and then she cried.
The situation is damn tense over there, it's like a hell.
So that's why I asked all the listeners and readers, whatever possible, please help the country and especially Mindat. They are very, very much in need of your help and your prayers.
It is very, very hard, very, very hard, because I can't do anything for her, I can't do anything but listen and try my best. So the only thing I can do is I connect her to organizations as much as possible, I call upon these organizations and donors outside of the country: if they can help in any way, any money they can spare, any medical supplies they can provide. That's the only thing I can do.
And I ask our people to pray for them. So we have this prayer session for them. And I ask some of the youth to make some noises so that attention will not only enter into Mindat, but that we can deviate that attention to the other regions. We cannot do more than that. So it's very, very limited how we can help. But still, I call on you to give whatever you can to my people. They are alone, they are being hunted, they are being raped, they are being killed. And all I can do is listen as she cries.”